1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium recording a print control program, and to a printing device. In particular, the present invention relates to a recording medium recording a print control program capable of flexibly coping with a change in an IP (Internet Protocol) address of a printing device connected to a network, and to the printing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is conventionally known a technique of connecting a PC (Personal Computer), a printing device such as an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral), a printer, a facsimile apparatus or the like, and a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server in a network environment, and assigning an IP address to each device by the DHCP server.
The IP address of the printing device assigned by the DHCP server may be changed for an unexpected reason. The IP address of the printing device may also be changed in a network in which a DHCP server is not used, due to various reasons. If such a change has been made, there arises a case where printing or communications cannot be carried out when a person directs a printing job from a PC or tries to obtain information of the printing device at the PC via interactive communications.
To avoid such a case, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-123380 discloses a technique in which a device with its IP address having been changed notifies a PC of the changed information.
Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-222149 discloses a technique in which, if an IP address of a printer has been changed while a PC is turned off, a MAC (Media Access Control) address is used to access the printer when the PC is turned on, and a new IP address is obtained from the printer to rewrite the stored IP address.
However, in the technique disclosed in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-123380, the PC should always be in a standby state for being notified of the change in the IP address. When the change in the IP address is to be notified, the notification would not be provided effectively if the PC is not connected onto a network, if the PC is powered off, or if the PC is powered on but not in a state capable of receiving the notification of the change.
Further, in the technique disclosed in the foregoing Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-222149, since the MAC address is assigned to a network interface card (NIC), the MAC address will be changed when the NIC is changed, causing the IP address of the printer to become unknown.